The Jagged Emperor of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 968

In the early morning two days later, the weather was quite clear, only one or two dewdrops were hanging on the leaves of the weeds on the ground.This place is not like Jiangdong, almost every morning when you come up, the first thing you see is mist.

This is Guanxi, and further west to the other side of the Yellow River is the Hetao. After the Hetao is the Great Wall, and after the Great Wall is the prairie and the Gobi.

However, Su Ze himself did not have a good mood on such a beautiful morning.Because he had just received a report, the Shu Han army quietly retreated from the camp outside Yuzhong City in the middle of the night.

Moreover, the opponent's actions were extremely fast, and they left without a sound. It was obvious that the retreat was carried out after very sufficient preparations.So much so that the troops monitoring the Shuhan Army didn't realize that something was wrong until this morning when they saw that the camp was empty and there was no one.

So, they immediately sent troops to investigate the situation, only to find that the Shu Han army inside was already empty.They were also very surprised that tens of thousands of people actually disappeared overnight.

It is not a small crime to monitor the enemy. Du Zuo immediately sent someone to report the news to Su Ze as quickly as possible.

? ?After Su Ze received the news from Du Zuo's men, he couldn't help being startled, put on his clothes hurriedly, and flew to the east gate.

Du Zuo, who had rushed to the top of the city tower one step earlier, hurried up with a few generals.

As Su Ze hurried upstairs, he asked loudly, "Is there any movement in the direction of Huangsha Valley?"

Yamen general Xu Yi replied: "My lord, I have no motive yet. This matter seems very strange. The road from here to Huangsha Valley is less than [-] miles away. The enemy walked in the middle of the night yesterday, and it has passed by now." For several hours, they managed to get there even if they climbed. However, the troops deployed by our army in Huangsha Valley have not found the whereabouts of the Shu Han army so far. Could it be that all of them can fly into the sky and escape from the ground?"

Su walked up to the city wall and raised his eyes to look east.It was indeed quiet outside the city, except for the wind blowing outside the city, there was almost no human noise outside.

And the sky in the direction of Huangsha Valley in the distance is even more peaceful, the sky is blue, and there are many light gray white clouds floating below, moving lazily.

Du Zuo pointed to the sky and said, "Lord Su, if the enemy retreated in the middle of the night, they would have already reached the Yellow Sand Valley. As long as they rush into the Yellow Sand Valley, the fire will burn, and we should see the smoke column rising into the sky at night .Is it because the enemy has just retreated and hasn't reached yet?"

Xu Yi said disapprovingly: "General Du, stop talking nonsense here. If he had just withdrawn, wouldn't our people be able to find out? It's such a good weather!"

Du Zuo actually felt that Xu Yi's words were rude, but they were actually very reasonable, so he said, "Then will the enemy cross Ningquan Mountain and flee into Jianping County from the west of Huangsha Valley? Open Huangsha Valley, that is to say, they can escape our ambush and escape back without any danger."

There was a sudden silence on the tower, and everyone turned their heads to look at Ningquan Mountain to the west.

Su Ze also began to have doubts in his heart, and asked, "Have you sent scouts in that direction?"

Du Zuo replied: "Because there are not many people who know about it even if they are locals. The Shu Han army is a foreign army, so the general did not send scouts there to monitor for the time being, and the general sent people there immediately."

Xu Yi said: "If the enemy escapes in the middle of the night, they have already been gone for two or three hours. Now there is no movement in the direction of Huangsha Valley, which means that the enemy is not going east at all. If the enemy does not flee east, the only possibility is to go to Ning Went to the direction of Quanshan. Master Su, what do you think?"

It should be said that Xu Yi's words expressed what Su Ze was most worried about.

Su Ze's face was gloomy, and his eyes were coldly looking at the Shu Han army camp below the city, feeling extremely angry in his heart.He was almost certain that Gai Meng and the others had escaped with their troops over Ningquan Mountain, otherwise, Huangsha Valley would have been in flames.

After planning hard for more than a month, Zhang was seriously injured, abandoned the defense line of Tianshui County, and ran for more than 1000 miles. After paying such a high price, he would fall short at this juncture!
The disappointment and anger in Su Ze's heart could be seen.

At this time, Zhao Nan, the captain among the generals, was familiar with the situation here because he was a local.

Pretending to be brave, he stepped forward and said to Su Ze: "Lord Su, that road is [-] to [-] li long, and it is very difficult to walk. It is estimated that the Shu Han army will take at least three days to reach Qingtai."

Su turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue.

Zhao Nan was the commander-in-chief of the Qiang tribe, and later served in the Cao Wei army. He was not tall but very strong.

Zhao Nan received Su Ze's instruction, and then he mustered up his courage and said: "Master Su, we can rush to Qingtai first, occupy a favorable terrain, wait for work at leisure, and hit the Shu Han army hard. The Shu Han army must be exhausted after walking on the mountain road for two days. , the combat effectiveness has been drastically reduced, we can completely annihilate them."

Seeing that he was really familiar with the situation, Su Ze asked, "Have you walked the path from Ningquan Mountain to Qingtai?"

These people shook their heads at the same time.

Zhao Nan said: "Only bandits are familiar with that road, and the last general only heard about it before, and never walked it himself."

Su Ze shook his head and said rather annoyedly: "I just want to know why I neglected that road? You are not familiar with it, and I am not familiar with it. It is very likely that this is the reason for my negligence. I take it for granted that the enemy is not familiar with it. Familiar. A small negligence has caused more than a month of hard work to go to waste, alas..."

"Master Su, what should we do now?" Xu Yi asked.

"Lead people out of the city, and bring back all the luggage discarded by the enemy." Su Ze thought for a while, and immediately said, "As soon as the scouts have news, let me know immediately."

Su Ze then came down from the city and rode back to Zhang Ji's house.

Zhang Ji's room was filled with a strong herbal smell, but because he was seriously injured and unable to blow the air, the smell in the room was not good.

After Su Ze explained the situation to Zhang Ji, he couldn't help sighing, and sat in front of Zhang Ji's bed.

Zhang Jize also sighed, and said, "You may not have known about that path before, but I am familiar with it after being in charge of Yongliang for so many years. We were too careless."

Su Ze slowly walked up to Zhang Ji and stopped, and said firmly, "De Rong, I plan to take the troops to Qingtai."

Zhang Ji groaned a few times, closed his eyes in pain, and said slowly: "The terrain of Qingtai is not conducive to ambushes. If we fight them face to face, the loss will be too great. I think we should move the battlefield forward as much as possible." Ambush them as much as possible and strive for their complete annihilation."

Zhang Ji is Zhang Ji, always thinking so thoughtfully.

Su Ze's expression changed, and he suddenly realized.

The army of Gai Meng and others spent four days groping in the mountains and finally arrived at Qingtai.

But to their surprise, the Shu Han army, who had been ordered by Gai Meng and others, was in a state of combat as soon as they came out of the mountain. They didn't even find a single person about ten miles away from Qingtai, let alone Cao Wei. army.

After receiving the scout's report, Lu Xun felt very puzzled.

Could it be that Cao Weijun wanted to give up the pursuit when he saw that the Shuhan army had retreated?
However, Lu Xun quickly dismissed this guess, because Cao Weijun did not give up the reason to pursue the Shuhan army.The Shu Han army had been exhausted after walking the mountain road for three days in a row. If they were hit head-on by the Cao Wei army, they would have suffered heavy losses.

Generals such as Gai Meng and Wu Yi were also puzzled by this.

However, although everyone was worried, but because they were temporarily out of danger, the fear and tension of the past few days were thrown into the sky, and everyone felt relaxed, as if they were relieved.Now even if Cao Wei's army chases after them, they are not afraid, their army will only be larger than Zhang Ji's.

Today, the army still has a distance of three hundred miles. If there is no accident, the army will be able to return to Pingxiang City safely in three to four days.Moreover, maybe on the way, they encountered the support troops sent by His Majesty.

The army rested for a while at Qingtai, then strode away and headed towards Pingxiang City at high speed.

In the evening, the army arrived at Luoyuan.

Because they had just left the mountain, the soldiers were really tired, so even if they marched quickly, they only traveled about [-] li.

There are still many soldiers who have fallen behind.If they go any further, the soldiers will lose their physical strength. If they are chased by Cao Weijun, they will not even have the strength to hold weapons.

The army immediately stationed in Luoyuan.Luoyuan is a dam in a mountainous area, the surrounding mountains are gentle and densely forested, and there is no dangerous terrain.

Although it was said to be camping, since all the luggage was discarded under the city of Yuzhong, the soldiers brought nothing but weapons and food, so everyone just camped in the open air and lay down with only their clothes on.

Due to the arduous march, the soldiers were exhausted physically and mentally, and soon fell asleep.

Xiong Ping's army camped on the west side of Luo Yuan.

It was midnight, and Xiong Ping was still up. According to Gai Meng's order, he could not go back to rest until he had personally inspected the situation of the barracks.

Suddenly, one of Xiong Ping's guards pointed to the night in the distance, and said: "General, there seems to be some noise over there, and the sound is still intermittent. It seems that you are a pack of wolves."

"Everyone is marching during the day, and we have to work shifts at night. It's too hard." Xiong Ping pointed to the guard and said with a smile, "You are probably too nervous, and there is something wrong with your ears. There are so many people and horses here together, how could the wolves dare to move around here, they would have all run away long ago."

The guard smiled shyly, and said, "General, I used to be a hunter, and I'm very familiar with the actions of wolves, so I probably wouldn't do it."

Xiong Ping was happy, and laughed softly with the guards behind, and the matter was exposed.

(End of this chapter)